VCE Awards Assembly

The Secondary School hosted the first VCE Awards Assembly in February. At this assembly students who achieve outstanding academic results in 2022 were recognised. The top performing student in each subject received an award, and each student who achieved an ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admittance Rank) above 95 was presented with a trophy. An ATAR score above 95 places students in the top 5% of the state for their results. It was very pleasing to see such a volume of students given awards for their hard work and dedication to their studies.

The College Dux for 2022, Andrea Chai, was also presented with the perpetual trophy. Andrea spoke to the students and parents about her experience at St Andrews and the lessons she learned whilst at the school, not only academically but spiritually as well.

One of the highlights was knowing that our students at St Andrews have been prepared to not only achieve excellent results but leave the school as outstanding people who have a heart to serve their future communities in their chosen field of work and studies.

Camp Coolamatong

Year 7 Camp In Week 3, we went to Coolamatong Camp for 5 days and 4 nights. It’s the first year we’ve had the experience of not getting to sleep in cabins. Instead of cabins, we had a form of cross-cabin-and-tent called a ‘tebin’. Like a cabin, it was made of wood and shaped like a small house, but the roof and door were made of tarp and we had to zip it up every night. Insects would crawl in and some of us were even spraying the outsides of our tebins with insect repellent!

Since Coolamatong was next to a lake (and the ocean), we had lots of water activities such as canoeing, raft-building, sailing, stand-up paddleboarding and tubing. Everyone loved tubing because it was really fun! Basically, you sit in a large floatie and get pulled around by a boat! Some people even fell off. Thankfully, God blessed us with good weather.

Even though water activities were fun, dry activities were fun too! We did combat archery, indoor climbing, bike riding and we even went on a boat trip! We also went on an Indigenous walk with Aunt Cass about how the Aboriginal people survived a long time ago, and how plants can stimulate energy, make natural hand sanitiser, be a hairbrush that has natural conditioner in it, and even make ropes that can tow cars! At the end of the walk, we met someone famous who had been on ABC TV, SBS, and even had his own book! Mr. Beaky the budgerigar! He is the only budgie in the world that has been recorded to speak an aboriginal language.

Overall, Camp Coolamatong was fun and it was sad and hard to leave. We had lots of fun even though we would always be in fear whether there was either a cockroach in the shower, or whether a swarm of mosquitoes was waiting in your tebin!

Lunar New Year

In the past few years, secondary students celebrated Lunar New Year in class and followed many traditional customs. They learnt how to wrap dumplings, wontons and spring rolls. They watched the Gala show together. This year, another tradition is brought into classroom, pasting red couplets on door frames. Families usually reunite together and write couplets to express blessing for the coming year. Our students even praised God in writing Chinese characters on red couplets. Let us check them out!